← Back to sermon library

e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e in a vision saying do not be afraid Abram I am your Shield your exceedingly great reward but Abram said Lord God what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is eleazer of Damascus then Abram said look you have given me no Offspring indeed one born in my house is my Heir and behold the word of the Lord came to him saying this one shall not be your Heir but one who will come from your own body shall be your Heir then he brought him outside and said look now toward heaven and count the Stars if you are able to count them and he said to him so shall your descendants be and he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness then he said to him I am the Lord who brought you out of er of the caldan to give you this land to inherit it and he said Lord God how shall I know that I will inherit it so he said to him bring me a three-year-old heer a three-year-old female goat a three-year-old Ram a turtle dove and a young pigeon then he brought all these to him and cut them in two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other but he did not cut the birds in two and when the vultures came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away now when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold horror and great Darkness fell upon him then he said to Abram know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years and also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward they shall come out with great possessions now as for you you shall go to your fathers in peace you shall be buried at a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete and it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a buring burning torch that passed between those pieces on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham with Abram saying to your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the Great River the river Euphrates the canites the canites the cadit the Hittites the perizzites the reame the amorites the Canaanites the gites and the jebusites amen well remember that God gave Abram promises when we see in Genesis chapter 2 uh 12 that call of Abram to leave his land to leave his father's house to leave the comfort and everything that that he had known and held near and dear and in Genesis 12 specifically God promises that he will give Abram a great number of descendants and he will give him a land and that land is obviously the land land of Canaan which becomes the land of Israel well here in Genesis 15 God reiterates those promises to Abram we see that God tends to Abram's Faith all along the way Abram was a man called to do great things called to engage in certain uh specific things and God upheld him by these words of promise that we find in chapters like genesis 15 and essentially what we have in verses 1 to6 here is the promise reiterated to Abraham and then in verses 7 to1 17 we have the confirmation by Covenant Abraham asks specifically for a confirming sign and God in his mercy and kindness gives him that sign of the Covenant covenant theology brings comfort and relief and blessing and benefit to the people of God it's not something confined to the Seminary it's not something confined to the theology class the covenant theology is something that should put metal in our in our bones and it should dirt us up and stay us under the faithful hand of God so let's look first at this promise to Abram we notice in the first place God gives him this word of comfort in verse one it says after these things now this is connected to Genesis CH 14 Genesis chter 14 Abram comes off again this military mission where he liberates his nephew lot and he liberates the persons that were abducted and the goods that were taken by these this coalition of Eastern Kings so it says after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision now this idea of the word of the Lord came to Abram that's very much used or that convention is used quite frequently in the prophets the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the word of the Lord came to Isaiah the word of the Lord came to to Ezekiel it's not as common here in the Book of Genesis but in Genesis 20 at: 7 Abram is identified as a prophet and certainly Abram is functioning as a prophet in this particular situation because God Reveals His plan to him in verses 13 to6 and then Abram would communicate that to his uh uh to his contemporaries and to his posterity as well but then notice God's specific command to Abram he says do not be afraid Abram now if we ask the question why would Abram have been afraid perhaps the answer may be he could have thought that the that Coalition of Eastern Kings may have gone up to Syria and gotten retooled rearmed and came back down into Canaan to clean up on Abram or he might have feared that the people of the land of Canaan thought he might come after them he had just rid that land of all these Eastern Kings and all of their difficulties so perhaps the people in the land now might fear Abram and Abram doesn't want that he wants to dwell in this particular land so the Lord God Comforts him and he encourages him and he says do not be afraid Abram and then he gives him these this two-fold promise or statement he said I am your Shield your exceedingly great reward and I think that's a great way for the Lord to to provide comfort and encouragement to Abram already melchisedek confess something of the same nature in verse 20 of chapter 14 well going back to verse 18 and chapter 14 then melkis that king of Salem brought out Bread and Wine he was the priest of God most high and he blessed him in said Blessed Be Abram of God most high possessor of Heaven and Earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand the Lord's already functioned as the shield The Protector as the defender of Abram and God tells him I don't want you to be afraid I am your shield in other words the way that Abram was able to defeat those kings was not owing to Abram's Superior military ability it wasn't owing to his uh larger Army remember he had 318 trained uh armed servants that's not a lot of men so he didn't have the numbers he probably didn't have the the technology in term of AR terms of armament and he certainly didn't have the experience as a military commander that Victory came as a result of God most high that's what melchisedek says blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand so the Lord Comforts Abram by telling him you do not need to be afraid because I am your shield and then he says I am your exceedingly great reward again look back in chapter 14 at verse 22 well verse 21 now the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the person and take the goods for yourself but Abram said to the king of Sodom I have raised my hand to the Lord God most high the possessor of Heaven and Earth that I will take nothing from a thread to a Sandal strap and that I will not take anything that is yours lest you should say I have made Abram Rich so you see he denies or rather refuses what the king of Sodom offers to him and says rather that he would be dependent upon the Lord now this is no accident that God comes to him with this two-fold statement of the way that he is for Abram I am your Shield your exceedingly great reward so the Lord throughout scripture gives us all of these commands over and over and over again we are told not to fear we're told to be Not Afraid now these aren't empty sort of admonitions based on our courage and ability but rather they are admonitions based on the true uh uh The Proven faithfulness and reliability of our God other words he tells us not to be afraid to fear not because he has demonstrated his Fidelity in our life and that's the the connection here between Genesis chapters 14 and 15 the Lord God is his shield the Lord God is his reward I didn't think I could quite hit the notes I was going to choose to saying be thou my vision tonight I wasn't sure I could get up there but in that particular hymn it says riches I heed not nor man's empty praise thou mine inheritance now and always thou and thou only first in my heart High King Of Heaven my treasure Thou Art and I think that reflects well what God says here to Abram your exceedingly great reward not just your reward but your exceedingly great reward I have something for you and it's exceedingly great namely it's me myself and that's how God Comforts Abram and admonishes him or encourages him to be not afraid because God will protect him and God will be his portion and law now notice Abram's response excuse me in verses 2 and three he reminds the Lord God that he is still childless much of God's uh uh or much of Abram's relationship to God is founded upon this promise of seed and land and so Abram here in verses 2 and three says I'm still seedless I'm still without a child I still haven't begun to receive the benefit and the promise that you have said Abram says in verse two Lord God what will you give me seeing I go childless it's probably an idiom meaning seeing I go to death childless as he's getting older he's fearing the reality that he's going to enter into the grave not having received the benefit and the promise that the Lord God had covenanted to him and so he expresses this to the go to to to the Lord God he says what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is eleazer of Damascus then Abram said look you have given me no Offspring indeed one born in my house is my now he is suggesting obviously that his servant be the heir so that he has an heir later on in chapter 17 he's going to suggest that Ishmael be that seed as well but God's going to say it's not Ishmael there's going to be a seed from you Abram and that's uh through him there's going to be a great multitude a great number of descendants but you can kind of understand why Abram does what Abram does here the Lord tells him do not be afraid I am your Shield I am your exceedingly great reward and then Abram says wait a minute Lord I'm going to go childless to the grave and I think it's very important for us to appreciate the way that God deals with Abram in this particular chapter he doesn't shout at him he doesn't yell at him he doesn't upgrade him he doesn't say how dare you question my Covenant faithfulness now I'm not suggesting that you and I challenge him I'm not suggesting that you and I question him but I am suggesting that in this Dynamic when there was this relationship between God and Abram apart from a written word apart from a canonized body of scripture wherein the Lord had spoken and given these promises Abram is asking God specifically concerning the promises that God made God doesn't shout him down in fact one of the beauties of this particular chapter is the confirmation of the promise via Covenant that is the response God gives to Abram when Abram says how do I know these things are going to take place God doesn't yell at him but God answers him in a very gracious and in a very wonderful way so the Lord promises in verses four and five and gives him yet another sign or rather an illustration look at verse four behold the word of the Lord came to him saying this one shall not be your Heir but one who will come from your own body shall be your Heir then he brought him outside and said look now toward heaven and count the Stars if you are able to number them and he said to him so shall your descendants be isn't that a beautiful way to answer the question Lord I'm going childless potentially to the grave and the Lord says I want you to look and I want you to look at the stars now the some have observed that it wasn't dark yet because in the next section this Covenant ratification ceremony it's now dark and you see this torch well some suggest it was visionary some suggest that the in terms of the Chron chronology it didn't necessarily all take place in the space of of one day but if you and I spot what appears to be some inconsistency you can bank that Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit spotted that as well and so it's not an inconsistency but nevertheless God says look at the stars and then he tells them or tells him specifically look now toward heaven and count the Stars if you are able to number them and he said to him so shall your descendants be now the Seed of Abraham is illustrated by dust in Genesis 13 The Seed of Abraham is going to be illustrated by dust or rather sand and stars in Genesis CH 17 and then again in Genesis CH 22 we see in Exodus and in Deuteronomy later Redemptive reflection upon this we see that God through Moses says that the children of Israel are more numerous than the stars of the sea so the Lord God tells Abram I don't want you to doubt but rather I want you to look at those stars and I want you to know that the number of descendant you will have is going to exceed even that so again you see how this is all functioning Abram says wait a minute I go to my grave childless and God says go ahead and look at the stars you're going to have more children than the stars in the very heavens now note verse six it's a beautiful declaration that obviously has far more application than just in this context text as we learned from the New Testament but it says and he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness he believed God he believed the truth as God spoke it he didn't whine he didn't Grumble he didn't complain he didn't say well wait a minute now again he's going to ask for confirmatory sign in verse 8 and the Lord and his kindness is going to give that to him but this is the emphasis of the of Moses I'm of the Apostle because it's such a Pauline concept that we find here Moses other words what we find here is essentially where we hang our souls in terms of our acceptance with God it says he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness this is the doctrine of justification by faith alone the acceptance of Abraham by God is Not conditioned upon Abraham's Works how do we know that you'll say well Paul tells us so in Romans chapter 4 so does Moses in Genesis 15 he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness not he worked and therefore God gave him or God accepted him as righteous not that he believed and work and therefore it was accounted unto him for righteousness but he believed and it was accounted to him for righteousness the promise was received by faith and we need to emphasize this because it's always Aba that the faith is the instrument it's not that Abram has this faith and because Abram has this Faith God's going to reward him with this acceptance by God no faith is the instrument by which we lay hold of the grace of God that Faith itself is a gift from God given by him to Abram John Gil makes this observation he says he Abram believed in the promise of God that he should have a seed and a very numerous one he believed that the Messiah would spring from his seed he believed in him as his Savior and Redeemer he believed in him for righteousness and he believed in his righteousness as justifying him before God not the act of his faith but the object of it again there's this idea that if we conjure up the faith we produce the faith we bring that to God and then God gives us or rewards us with righteousness that's not the way you're supposed to appreciate this doctrine of faith in terms of its instrumentality by receiving the grace of God our confession says in chapter 11 paragraph 1 with reference to uh uh justification not by imputing faith itself the act of believing or any other Evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness Lord God doesn't say oh you have faith therefore that's your righteousness that's not the way the text is supposed to be understood that's not the way the Apostle expounds the text in the New Testament it's not that Abram brings faith and now God says okay I'm going to give you this righteousness the faith that Abram has is a gift from God and it's the empty hand that receives the blessing of God and that's what the confession highlights it says not uh uh not or or any other Evangel Evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness if you're interested this is called baxian ISM or neoxian ISM Richard Baxter was a Puritan who believe this very thing that we have this faith we bring it to God it's an Evangelical work by which we are then given a righteousness that's not Paul's point if you think that's true you need to read John Owen you need to read our confession of Faith you need to read Paul more carefully that's never been the way it's been preached here that you conjure up the faith you bring it to the table and then God will reward you with righteousness neither Pastor Porter nor myself have ever said that we've always maintained that it's a an instrumentality we are saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God we receive that blessed benefit from uh through the instrumentality of faith and then our confession goes on not by imputing faith itself but by imputing Christ's active obedience un the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and so righteousness by faith which Faith they have not of themselves it is the gift of God that's absolutely accurate now some might say well you know John Gil sees Jesus in Genesis 15 and verse 6 Jesus tells us that Abram saw Jesus in Genesis 15 and verse 6 the Lord Christ said Abraham rejoiced to see my day Abram didn't have some generic undefined nebulous concept of a coming Messiah he had the the certain knowledge of the Christ of God he had the certain knowledge of this second person of the Trinity who took on our Humanity to come to save his people from their sins Jesus tells us that Abram saw Jesus that's not John Gil John Gil's just clarifying for us so if you think that that's a a Puritan construct or an old particular Baptist construct you need to reckon with the Lord Jesus Christ and what he says concerning Abram and you need to reckon with the Apostle Paul and what he says concerning Abram Paul uses Abram as the proof the positive test case that justification is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone Paul would never appeal to Abram if that wasn't the case and then commenting on this text but in relationship to Paul's Exposition in Romans 4 John Calvin says the Merit of Works ceases when righteousness is sought by faith for it is necessary that this righteousness should be freely given by God and offered in his word in order that any one may possess it by faith for it is especially to be be observed that Faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere I love the way he conceptualizes that I love the way he says that it is obvious that Faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere you've heard uh Luther's emphasis on an alien righteousness that's absolutely positively 100% true we have an alien righteousness imputed to us it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ Our Lord so says faith borrows a righteousness elsewhere of which we in ourselves are destitute otherwise it would be in vain for Paul to set faith in opposition to works when speaking of the mode of obtaining righteousness beautiful stuff in Calvin's commentary here on Genesis 15 as there is in John Gil as well but you see he believed in the Lord and He accounted it to him for righteousness that is the the doctrine of justification by faith alone now notice secondly in terms of the larger flow of the context the confirmation by Covenant in verses 7 to 17 verse 7 is intriguing because you see it come up in Covenant making Covenant making is pretty particular and pretty specific there's certain things perhaps not every Covenant has every element but there is a series of elements or collection of things that are there or present with reference to Covenant making and one of the things that is quite typical is a preamble or a historical sort of overview you see it in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5 before God gets into expounding the particulars of the Ten Commandments he says I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt this was quite common in covenants the Superior or the the the the the suarin the man that would make the Covenant I'm not saying God as a man but an ancient NE Eastern Covenant AK that one would remind the people the subjects of what he had accomplished on their part and then the vassel the the the subject would listen to that and would swear Fidelity to the one making the Covenant and so this Preamble here sets the stage for the Covenant that follows or this ratification ceremony that follows notice in verse 7 then he said to him I am the Lord who brought you out of er of the caldan to give you this land to inherit to inherit it and so we have the promise of seed we have the promise of land both are reiterated by God most high to Moses at uh to Abram at a time when he is childless and at a time when he is essentially landless now I realize he's in Canaan he's just come back from you know getting those Eastern Kings out of Canaan so I doubt he's really established I doubt he's really entrenched I doubt he's got you know a golf course and and a retire you know Villa or anything like that he's still a a a Stranger in a Strange Land for the most part so the two basic promises or the two foundational promises that God gave him in terms of children and land he's still kind of saying wait a minute I haven't begun to see these things at this point and that brings us to Abram's question in verse 8 he said Lord God how shall I know that I will inherit it now winham says how am I to know is a request for a sign to confirm the promise not the expression of doubt it's an a request for a sign to confirm the promise not the expression of doubt now you know most of the commentators that I read all make sure they hedge that and they make sure they they say that Abram's not wavering he doesn't have unbelief in fact Paul tells us in Romans chapter 4 who contrary to Hope and hope he believed his faith was strengthen but at the same time brethren we see this again when when the cannon is not closed and God is speaking specifically to his subjects in the Bible or these particular eras it wasn't outlandish for persons to ask for a sign Gideon for instance in the Book of Judges asks for a sign Hezekiah in the book of Second Kings asks for a sign now I'm not suggesting that we do what Gideon does and before we buy a house or a car we put the fleece out and to see whether it's wet or not we're not supposed to take that and do thou likewise again there's a different condition that obtains for us in the New Covenant when we have the closed Cannon of scripture we are not to be Gideon likee and test God or put these tests out there for God put a towel in our backyard and if we get up in the morning and it's wet then we'll know we have the positive answer from God well you're always going to get a positive answer from God living in chillac I'm here to tell you it's going to happen you see you get that in Christianity well I I need to put out the fleece no you're not Gideon you've not been called to Vanquish the midianites you are not in direct contact with the living and true God there's no fleece in your life you need to take the word of God and you need to obey the directives that God has given you and if there is something that isn't addressed specifically by God's word you're supposed to use your brain and make implication from the written text you go to explicit texts if those explicit texts don't speak to your issue then go to implicit tax and then you've always got the prerogative to ask the question is this a particular sin we can always know that if I choose something that's sin God's word condemns it but if I have two options and neither are sinful I can choose either one that's God's will for you and me in our lives now there might be wisd in choosing the one over the other but in terms of decision making and the will of God do not be a Gideon take explicit text take implication and then ask the question is it a sin for me to choose the yellow house or is it a sin for me to choose the brown house well neither yellow or brown are an offense to God so you're free to choose whichever one you want to choose now sometimes that kind of Liberty freaks the people of God out they think God needs to tell them whether to have the raisin brand or the Cheerios in the morning Brethren that is not the conditions in which we live as the as the children of God today we are not supposed to put out the fleece when it comes to breakfast cereal now some of you may be thinking this is outlandish that you would even suggest such a thing do you know any charismatics have you met any Pentecostals have you ever talked to some reformed people that have this kind of an orientation the word of God is our marching orders and if there is not something to directly addressed by God we're supposed to use wisdom we're supposed to do a little work we're supposed to think we we're supposed to seek counsel there's no fleece there's no direct questioning of God God how do I know that this is going to happen for us but for Abram for Gideon for Hezekiah these are uh perfectly legit and appropriate now notice God doesn't rebuke him how dare you ask for confirmation how dare you ask me the living and true God he doesn't do that he's a gracious God he is a compassionate God he is the god of Psalm 103 he knows that we're but dust he knows our frame and he pies us and as well God does deal with him graciously through the confirmation of his Covenant I heard a sermon preached from this passage by Dr Ralph Davis and it may seem a little trivial but the title of the sermon was how do you spell relief remember the old RADS commercial how do you spell relief rol l a i DS well he asked the question how do you spell relief c oov n a n t that's how he entitled this passage and I think he's absolutely right he asks Abram Lord God how shall I know that I will inherit it now notice in verses 9 to1 God instructs Abram on what he is supposed to do he tells him to use specific animals that will come up later in the levitical system these will be animals that will be sacrificial animals so God tells him to get these animals and bring them and then in verse 10 it says then he brought all these to him and cut them into two down the middle and placed each piece opposite the other but he did not cut the birds in two there's lots of reasons why the the speculations as to why he didn't cut the birds in two but for now let's just say with the big animals he took them and he cut them in half and he put one on you know half the beast on one side and half the beast on the other side now Brethren this was not unique to this situation in Israel this was a means by which covenants were ratified and the significance is very evident as we move through the text it's referred to later in the Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah CH 34 but here specifically you've got half a cow here and half a cow there half a yeah half a a heer here and half a heer there and then there's a pathway in the middle and then in verse 11 it says and when the vultures came down on the carcasses Abram drove them away now some see that the car uh the the vultures there is either Egypt or Pharaoh others see it as no it consistent with what we'll find with reference to the significance of this Covenant ceremony in essence the ceremony is an imposition of a self maledictory oath let me just Define my terms here you all know what a benediction is a benediction at the end of a church service is a good word it's typically a section of scripture it's a good word pronounced upon the people of God benediction good word malediction means bad word not you know four-letter word but a a word of curse a word of of Destruction a word imposed upon somebody self maledictory in terms of Covenant keeping and essentially the the the the ratification ceremony goes this way the two parties of the Covenant walk between those animals with the understanding that if either one of these persons break the Covenant they are imposing a self- maledictory oath upon them they are saying if I break the Covenant May what happened to these animals happen to me in other words may I be caught in two may I be destroyed and so these vultures are probably seen in that particular light it was part of the Covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28 your carcasses shall be for food or be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth and no one shall frighten them away so essentially these vultures who've come Abram drives them away but the idea being is that if one of the parties breaks the Covenant they will become separated or or cut up like these animals and they will basically become food for the vultures so so that's part of the the situation here so that's the instruction God gives to Y uh God gives to Abram now note the promise reiterated by this Covenant ceremony in verses 12 and following verse 12 says now when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold horror and great Darkness fell upon him it's the same sort of um same sort of thing that we see with uh Genesis chapter 2 the sleep that overtook Adam so it's a a heavy sleep that he goes into here so when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold horror and great Darkness fell upon him now know what God does he reiterates the terms of the Covenant and he gets very specific in terms of the details verse 1 then he said to Abram know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years now we've had the benefit of looking at Stephen's speech in Acts chapter 7 and referring to this not too long ago in that particular connection he's speaking about what happens to them when they go into Exile in Egypt God is telling Abram sort of the program for Israel as a people before they actually take possession of the promised land in other words God gave this promise but there's this 400-year period until they receive the benefits that are promised I tried to point this out in the acts 7 sermon that God's promises are good time does not invalidate them time does not mitigate against them time does not change that he may not perform according to our time frame but that's not his job as the living and true God we're called to submit to his time frame and to realize that he always does what's best he always knows what's best and he is always doing that which brings glory to his name and good to his people so he is announcing to Abram this program for Israel with reference to Exile in Egypt no certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years and also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward they shall come out with great possessions and that is precisely what happens in the book of Exodus they come out of the land and they have great possessions remember the Egyptians are all too willing to give them those possessions to get them out of their land we don't want you here anymore we just buried our firstborn whom Yahweh killed among us we would rather you leave and depart and so God announces this program in terms of Abram personally verse 15 now as for you you shall go to your fathers in peace you shall be buried at a good old age but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete and I find this very intriguing this reference to the amorites I think it's what's called a a SI Siti which means uh a part is put for the whole in other words the amorites represent all the 10 Nations that are mentioned there specifically in 19 to 21 it might have been them specifically because that's who Abram was most familiar with but notice What God Says to him in verse 16 but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete what does that mean God actually wants them to finish sinning before he brings judgment upon them God wants them to actually engage in such wickedness and lawlessness before he brings judgment to Bear upon them well in a sense yeah because God is Not arbitrary and God is Not capricious if these amorites and the the other Canaanites are going to be expelled from the land it's not going to be by Caprice but rather by just judgment and righteousness in other words they when they fill up the measure of their guilt they will be right for the Judgment of God turn to Leviticus CH 18 we see certainly that that does occur that does happen and that's why Israel is told to go into Canaan and dispossess the land of the Canaanites notice in Leviticus 18:24 4 do not defile yourselves with any of the of these things for by all these the nations are defiled which I am casting out before you for the land is defiled therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it and the land vomits out its inhabitants you see God is just God is right God is good God doesn't just say well I don't want the amorites there anymore so go ahead and attack them no the amorites haven't filled up the measure of their guilt yet to produce a condition whereby the land is going to vomit them out and so God tells him that their time is not quite yet and so not only does this mean amorites and Canaanite occupation of the land of Canaan but it also means Israel in Egypt so in other words God is saying there are things that must happen before you occupy the land as the the the promised deed or gift that I have given to you and intriguingly when Israel falls into this same sort of a pattern they receive the Judgment of God turn to Matthew 23 Matthew chapter 23 just to see this this is a a very important principle because if anybody ever says to you well I just can't believe that that God would tell Israel to go in there and just throw all those poor and innocent people out of the land of Canaan they were not poor and innocent people they engaged in gross sexual perversion in fact in the context there in Leviticus 18 it was sex ual perversion that's what God is saying I don't want you to do what they did it's for that cause that the land vomits them out and so if somebody says well that doesn't seem fair that God would take his special people and say well go ahead and go in there and kill all those poor innocent people in Canaan they were not poor innocent people they were god-hating vile reprobates and Israel served as the means by which God brought judgment to Bear upon them now when Israel occupies the land they begin to exhibit Canaan isation among themselves there's a a very intriguing juxtaposition when you look at Genesis and the Sodom record to to the to the end of Judges what happens in judges the very thing that happens in Sodom happens in the Book of Judges in Israel so you see in the Book of Judges this increasing Canaan isation of the people of Israel you see it in the books of Kings specifically whereas there's this increasing Canaan isation well what happens when they fill up the measure of their guilt God sends Babylon in to destroy and decimate the southern Kingdom prior to that he sends the Assyrians in to destroy and decimate the northern kingdom he's not capricious he's not arbitrary he judges the world according to righteousness and when persons fill up the measure of their guilt God sends that judgment that's what Jesus is referring to in Matthew 23:31 therefore you are witnesses against against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up then the measure of your father's guilt and then he goes into pronouncing the reality that their house is left to them desolate and then he engages in the olette discourse which is a pro a protracted discourse on the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple Paul refers to the same thing using the same sort of convention in first Thessalonians chap 2 you can turn there 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 just so you can see because this is very important when it comes to apologetic uh interaction people will tell you I don't think it's fair that God you know expelled the land of Canaan with from uh expelled all those poor Canaanites from Canaan they weren't poor Canaanites they were Wicked vile wretched and they had had plenty of time to sort of get their act together but they didn't they filled up the measure of their guilt so God raises up Israel and sends Israel in to destroy them when Israel acts like them God sends Assyria to destroy them God sends Babylon to destroy them in the New Covenant era God sent Rome to destroy them notice in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 14 for you Brethren became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen just as they did from the Jud an who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and had persecuted us and they do not please God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved so as always to fill up the measure of their sins but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost he's talking about 8070 he's talking about the Judgment that's going to come via the Roman armies so back in Genesis 15 verse 16 that's what God is telling Abram but in the fourth generation they shall return here for the iniquity of the amorites is not yet complete when that iniquity is complete they'll return and they'll be the means in the hand of God to dispossess them from the land of Canaan that's how the land would vomit those inhabitants out it would be through the the the war holy war engaged by the children of Israel and now notice the uh the ratification of the Covenant in verses 17 and 18a it says in verse 17 and it came to pass when the sun went down and it was dark that behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces now the smoke and the fire are symbolic for the presence of God excuse me the smoke and fire are symbolic for the presence of God remember on Sunday I mentioned with reference to the burning bush God's not a burning bush we all know that when we get into heaven it's not there's going to be a burning bush right there on the throne God is uh a spirit he does not have a body like Men And so there's what's called theophany and theophany simply means a manifestation of God and very often in the the ex Book of Exodus God demonstrates or shows or gives a symbol or token of his presence Through Fire and smoke now notice the smoking oven and the burning torch were an emblem of the divine presence was an emblem of the divine presence now what is significant here is that this is a unilateral Covenant a unilateral Covenant this is very important for all of us to understand it's God Alone who passes between the two animals it's not God in terms of you know the the actual you know God it's the the the god uh represented by or symbolized by this uh smoking oven and burning torch that passed between those pieces Verse 18 tells us the the significance to this act on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying now why do I say that this is significant that it's unilateral because the the the two parties that that walk between the animals would both swear Fidelity with reference to the Covenant and and in essence swear to one another that they would make good on the terms of the Covenant and if they fail to make good on terms of the Covenant then may what happen to these animals happen to either party in terms of the Covenant make it you get that only God goes through the pieces it's unilateral it's not a joint it's not Abram it's not us it's not you know us and God are going to get this done it's God who gets it done it's God who swears that if he reneges on the Covenant then may what happen to these animals happen to him that's how sure we are that God is good or makes good on his promises John Gil explained it excuse me it being usual in making covenants for the covenantor to pass between the parts of a creature slain signifying that should they break the covenant made they deserve to be cut aunder as that creature was a more Modern Man a modern man named op Robertson in a little book called The Christ of the covenants he says by dividing animals and passing between the pieces participants in a covenant pledge themselves to life and death these actions established an oath of self- malediction if I wasn't live streaming I'd ask for somebody to tell me what a malediction is to see if we remember you know from 20 long minutes ago if they should break the commitment involved in the Covenant they were asking that their own bodies be torn In Pieces Just as the animals have been divided ceremonial ceremonially in the case of the abrahamic Covenant God the Creator binds himself to Man the creature by a solemn Blood Oath the Almighty he chooses to commit himself to the Fulfillment of promises spoken to Abraham by this Divine commitment Abraham's doubts are to be expelled God has solemnly promised and has sealed that promise with a self self- maledictory oath the realization of the Divine word is assured so you see there would be no better way for God to assuage Abraham's doubts fears concerns questions then this Ceremony this is as good as it could possibly get there is more comfort and more relief and more encouragement in Genesis 15 than there is in a whole lot of other places I don't want to say in the Bible because whole Bible's filled with Comfort but this is The Rock Solid promise of God in which he covenants solely and alone to make good on these particular promises and he brings this oath upon himself that if he reneges then may what happen to these animals happen to him the emblem of the Divine being passed between or the emblem of divine presence passed between the animals alone not accompanied by Abraham John Gil again says only God passed between the pieces not Abram this Covenant being as others God makes with men only on one side God in covenanting with men promises and gives something unto them but men give nothing to him but we receive from him and Meredith Klein says by passing alone between the pieces God swore Fidelity to his Covenant promises excuse me and took upon himself all the curses symbolized by the carcasses now I think when you you you step back from this and you just think about it as if you were Abram you'd probably go wow this is amazing right this is incredible this is this just is glorious I mean that God would passed through this alone and and and oath or promise or swear in such a way that if he defaults on the Covenant then may he be torn aund like these animals when you you think about the New Covenant what does it tell us or what does Paul tell us with reference to Christ in terms of his Redemptive work on our behalf now that's a huge question because there's a lot of things Paul tells us about Christ and the significance of his work when with reference to guilty Sinners but one thing in particular that I think we ought to consider with reference to this whole Covenant ratification ceremony where God takes upon himself the the the oath of self- malediction that if he reneges on the co uh Covenant then may he be torn aunder the way these animals are Galatians 3:13 Christ became a curse for us we failed we didn't do anything that we were ever supposed to do so in that Christ is broken Christ becomes a curse Christ is like one of those animals torn aunder so the promise made by God in Genesis 15 is actually brought to fruition at Calvary in terms of the Redemptive work of Christ on our behalf he became a curse for us all the bad stuff associated with Covenant breaking visualized or Illustrated in The Cutting aund of these animals Christ went to the cross and took it for us it's really an amazing reality that we have in our Bibles the chapter finishes by God's giving him the boundaries of the land he speaks of the geographical in verse 18 he speaks of the ethnological in verses 19 to 21 other words the geography is this it won't ultimately be realized the way it's described there until David and Solomon but this is what the boundaries of the promised land are going to look like he speaks of the ethnological the the various persons or people groups that make up this particular land presently in verses 19 to 21 but as we've seen in our studies there's also a typological God gave Abram a promise he told him in Genesis 13 to look North to look South to look East to look West Paul tells us that Abram would be the inheritor of the world and so this is microcosm for what Abram will ultimately inherit by virtue of his seed the Lord Jesus Christ excuse me so that is the ratification ceremony with Abram to assuage any doubts or fears that he might have had and to answer his specific question concerning the promise of seed and land I think with reference to the faith of Abraham we ought to appreciate that the righteousness was imputed to him it wasn't a works it wasn't something did it wasn't something meritorious on his part he wasn't such a great guy God said okay I'm going to give you this righteousness the gift of faith was the instrument by which this righteousness comes to him but the object of that faith is the Lord Jesus Christ the object of that faith is the Messiah now again some might ask the question well how did Abram know all about Messiah Genesis 3:15 he knew from Genesis 22 he knew from the promises of God most high that there would be a substitute there would be the one to take the place of others and that one would be the Messiah of God so Abra uh Abram saw Jesus day not an undefined person uh uh person he saw it by grace through faith he saw it through the promises of God and he saw it through the types given to him that Ram caught in the thicket in Genesis 22 you ought to Think Jesus when you see that Ram caught in the thicket because that's how Abraham understands it that's how Abram interprets it for Isaac there's a doctrine of substitutionary atonement right there in Genesis CH 22 Abraham knows that you know we can't get this idea that that Abraham was just this Pawn sort of bbing around the land of Canaan he believed God he he trusted God he took God at his word he didn't doubt he didn't you know W wander he didn't go astray he he maintained Fidelity to the Lord God most high in terms of this chapter and the faithfulness of God we see his exhortation given to Abram do not be afraid Abram I think that's a great exhortation and one that is repeated so many times in in scripture because the tendency for the people of God is to be afraid it is to fear it is to think that the Coalition of Eastern Kings are going to best us it's the tendency to think that you know Goliath is going to best us and I'm certainly not going to psychologize that and talk about the goliaths in our lives but there is this fear that the people of God manifest and and and God comes to Abram and says don't be afraid I don't want you to be afraid and the reason why you shouldn't be afraid is cuz I'm your Shield I'm your protector and I'm your exceedingly great reward that's not just for for Abram we call him the father of the faithful don't we well we're the faithful not in terms of our works and not in terms of our consistency with reference to the Christian life but as Believers in Christ we are the faithful right you're all looking at me a bit puzzle that that really is the case so these things are for us as well he's our Shield our Defender our protector Our Redeemer our friend he is our ex exceedingly great reward perhaps if we valued God and prized God more the way that he encouraged Abram to do so sin would lose something of its attractiveness in other words if we valued and prized God more than we did our own sin and wicked desires perhaps that would be an impetus to Holiness and righteousness if we thought in terms of God being our exceedingly great reward yes in Salvation we've received the Forgiveness of sins we've received a righteousness that avails with God but we've received God we received Jesus Christ I love the hymn 432 I mean it's a it's a bit of a lengthy hymn but that last one the last stanza is absolutely glorious Jesus I do now receive him more than all in him I find he hath granted me forgiveness I am his and he is mine see if that was in our minds more Genesis 15 Christianity was more in our blood and our our bones perhaps we would spend more time with God perhaps we would Delight ourselves more with God perhaps our prayer wouldn't be colder or or infrequent perhaps we wouldn't be Strangers With written uh reference to the written text if we priz and value God we're going to be with God we're going to be near God we're going to draw nigh unto him when we see that he's our exceedingly great reward read The Song of Solomon sometime and don't read it as a love story between Solomon and his bride read it as a love story between the god of Israel and Israel read it as a love story between the second person of the Trinity and the Church of Jesus Christ and see how the the the the the bride speaks of the bridegroom it's all together lovely and chief among 10,000 I mean that's the reward for the bride it's not all the the the the decoration it's not all the gifts it's not all the the Pomp and the show it's the bridegroom it's the Lord Christ himself that's what ought to animate the people of God and that ought to promote in us this not fearing because God is our shield and our exceedingly great reward the fact that he reiterates the seed promise excuse me and the land promise and the fact that he confirms all of this by Covenant that he confirms it in the manner in which he does I mean he could have just said yeah Abraham what I've said is true but but he goes through this elaborate ritual I mean this had to take time didn't it I've never CAU a heer in two I I'll admit that never cut a heer and two I can't actually envisage a day where I may cut a heer and two I guess if times get rough and Walmart's shelves are empty and there's a heer walking by I'll cut it in two so my beloved and I can eat but that had to be some work that's an elaborate ritual that is a lot to do to prove the point yet God does it to prove the point and if he's going to do that when we get to Hebrews 6 and it tells us that he could swear by nothing greater than his own name that really ought to assuage any fears any doubts or any difficulties that you and I have excuse me in the Christian Life I have to close well let's close in a word of prayer father we thank you so very much for Genesis 15 and for what it teaches us about you now it shows us what a great and gracious and glorious God you are and that you went to such lengths to to to show Abraham your faithfulness to show Abraham your faith uh your your your commitment to your own Covenant and God how we Marvel that Christ became a curse for us that all of the Judgment that comes upon those those U split animals should have come upon us but the Lamb of God took it on our behalf how we thank you for that how we praise you for redemption in him and God help us to see that you are our shield and that you are our exceedingly great reward go with us now we pray and we ask in Jesus name amen